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Monthly Archives: October 2012

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What happens when you end up spending the whole weekend with friends….yup…social eating. My weekend was filled with TONS of pizza, candy corn, brownies, cake, boba, cheese, and donuts. (Although to be fair, about half of that was stress eating). So let’s just say I woke up this morning feeling like something died in my stomach…eww. So today was spent eating a lot of white rice, chicken broth, applesauce, and toast. But that’s okay. Tomorrow I will be 100% better and can get back on track. I need to remember that being kind to my body will ALWAYS be better than how that donut or whole pizza tastes.

Last night I cried. My bf and I watched the last 2 episodes with the 10th Doctor, David Tennant. I was fine, a bit sad, but not crying throughout both episodes. Then at the end, I started crying, hard. I love David Tennant. He is a phenomenal actor. He does a fantastic job as the 10th Doctor. Honestly, I don’t see why he ever had to go. I mean, I haven’t seen the Matt Smith episodes yet, so I can’t really judge the newer episodes. But still. *sigh* The 10th Doctor will always be the best.

I found this video on youtube….it’s a perfect farewell to the best Doctor :’)

Today is going to be a bit weird (eating-wise). So far I’ve eaten a lot of leftover Banana bread, strawberries, and some Bob’s Red Mill 10-cereal w/ strawberries.

Tonight is movie night! A few friends are coming over to watch Halloween movies and to keep it simple it’s a pizza and popcorn night. (I’m going to try to eat less pizza than I normally do at these types of get-togethers.. *cough* 6 *cough* lol)

Tired…so so tired. The last few days have been interesting. For one thing, I didn’t know I could make it 4 days on 3-6 hrs of sleep each night and still be kinda functional. Although, I wasn’t able to work out (not good to stress your body if you didn’t get enough sleep by working out). My diet was really good….up until yesterday. I ate a LOT of food yesterday and today because I was so exhausted. But the food I did eat was healthier food. I didn’t have any junk. (Also, it didn’t help that I was up at 4 AM and going until 11 PM).

You’ll notice (down below) I made Hungry Herbivore’s Pumpkin Bread. I changed the recipe a bit. Instead of brown sugar I used Raw Coconut Crystals (works perfectly!) and instead of using Whole Wheat Flour I used Whole Wheat Pastry Flour. Next time I want to experiment using dates and bananas as sweeteners and also add chocolate chips, nuts, etc. It was pretty good though!

Today, I felt like I was hit by a train. So much lack of sleep lately. This is not good. Going to go to sleep early tonight. (Although I kind of have to wake up at 4;30 to take my friend to have surgery). And tomorrow is going to be a very long day (probably won’t get to bed until after midnight). But aside from the fact that I was a zombie all day, today was pretty good.

After this I attempted to go to the gym for my HIIT workout. Well, I was still so weak and exhausted that I could barely make it half way to the gym. So I turned around and decided to go grocery shopping instead (my favorite thing to do!).

That vegan pasta was AH-mazing! Whenever Mother’s Market sells it, I grab a box of it. Since I cut out dairy, one of the things I miss most are the creamy pasta dishes. I used to eat a lot creamy vodka sauce, alfredo, creamy pesto, mac n’ cheese, etc. These nut-based cream sauces were way better than some of the flour ones I’ve tasted in the past (never. again.) I think sometime in the next week or two I’m going to try to make pasta with some sort of vegan cream sauce. I am excited! This is going to be fuuun!

I let myself sleep in until 8, even though I woke up (without my alarm) at 6:35. I went on a 30 minute power walk before making some heart healthy oatmeal. I am in complete yoga withdrawal. I stopped going because I just don’t have time; but I think I’m going to have to start doing it again. I definitely feel the difference in my body, especially today. I am so sore and my muscles are very tight. I might do a short yoga sesh before bed tonight. Loads to do! So this will be a quick post.

So I tend to avoid the scale. Not because I’m afraid the number will be huge, but because it’s just a number, and it really doesn’t mean much. However, every few weeks I’ll step on the scale to see my weight so that I can make sure my heart rate monitor will be accurate. So this morning when I weighed myself I was shocked that I had actually gained weight since eating clean and exercising (since I went on vacation). But before I let my self-esteem plummet, I reminded myself that:

1- Muscle weighs more than fat

2- My jeans fit better now than they did 6 weeks ago

3- I don’t jiggle

4- I feel fantastic

After that mini pep talk, I put away the scale and forgot about it.

A lot of people tend to measure weight loss by how much they weigh. It is possible to weigh 120 lbs living off Twinkies and oreos. All you have to do is calorie count. Chances are, you will have very little muscle and mostly fat. Back when I used to calorie count and live off “diet” food, I would weigh myself almost every day. It became an obsession. It was unhealthy. If I gained even an ounce, I would become depressed and would skip dinner or lunch to hopefully get rid of it. It took me about a year to break the habit of calorie-counting and weighing myself everyday. I am much happie. Now I go by how I feel and how my clothes fit. If you are trying to lose weight, using a scale can be helpful, just don’t let a number own your life.

This was an intense workout. My heart rate was high during this workout (150-179 bpm), except when I was walking (100-120 bpm). I was incredibly surprised with the difficulty of this TIU routine. The last and first two exercises were very difficult and I kept having to take breather breaks. The rest were pretty easy. I ended up burning way more calories than I had planned (650-ish, then add in from this morning’s walk…it’s about 700-750) so I had to make up for it after dinner. ( I do estimations of calories if I work out too much so that I don’t end up going under 1200 and having my body go into starvation mode- not good!) After I got back, I showered, did some laundry and made dinner.

-wash and chop the head of broccoli and cook in the microwave for 45 sec.-1 min.

-meanwhile, chop the onion slice and prepare the garlic(I use the pre-minced garlic but you can use regular garlic or garlic powder)

-heat a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil, once hot, add the onions and garlic. Let cook for a min. then add the broccoli

-mix everything in the pan together and let sit for a few minutes

-add 1 or 2 tsps of lemon juice

-sprinkle about 1/2 tsp- 1 tsp of herbamare

-mix and let cook for a few minutes

-in a separate bowl, mix the quinoa, broccoli mixture, and the cooked lentils

-drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil and mix

DINNER IS SERVED

After dinner I had half of a cinnamon raison roll from Zen Bakery (LOVE the ingredient list) and then went to Yogurtland and made myself a giant bowl of fruit (no yogurt), topped with a brownie bite, some Reece’s Pieces Cups and Oreo Crumbles.

You can’t really tell but about 4/5 -5/6 of this bowl is just fruit and I sprinkled the chocolate junk food over the top (it’s not a lot though).

I HATE Paranormal Activity. I think I might have mentioned this before. I thought I was fine last night, but oh no. I couldn’t bring myself to turn off any of the lights. I went to bed at 10:30, hoping to get a good night’s rest and wake up early. I might have fallen asleep around 3-ish. I hope this doesn’t last too long. Looks like another coffee day!

Woke up at 6:30. Went for my morning Booty Call (Tone It Up!) -30. min. walk.

Breakfast was delicious! I strayed from the usual (oatmeal) and had some of Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain hot cereal with 1/2 banana, 1/2 tsp of honey, flax, maca powder, unsweetened almond milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and 1 tsp of PB.

The next few weeks are going to be insane with school stuff. So much to do. It’s a bit overwhelming. But, it’s got to get done.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Daily dose of motivation:

click for source

Also, this song came on during my walk last night. I thought it fit well with Felix Baumgartner‘s accomplishment. Enjoy!

Uggghh! I still have so much work to do. I think I’m going to just work straight until my walk (no more mini breaks).

But on the bright side, I did organize my room a bit. 🙂 Before lunch I had a chocolate chip cookie dough Larabar as a snack.

Lunch:

Pumpkin Empanada w/ refried beans.

In theory this sounded delicious. But I forgot to add the salt to the white corn meal so it was def. missing something. Also, I wasn’t very into it because it had a distinctive fall flavor and it’s 86 degrees right now. -_- However I used the fat-free refried beans as a dip which made it taste PERFECT! Next time I think I will mix the pumpkin and the beans. (We’ll see how that turns out).

Hi! So this is my very first blog post (so exciting)! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! Last week was nice and cool (in the 60’s) but this upcoming week is going to be brutal (80’s and 90’s). But at night it’s going to be nice and cool again (thank God!).

Breakfast:

KERF oats

I had oatmeal for breakfast. 1/3 c. oats, 2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk, flax, maca, 1/2 banana, vanilla, and cinnamon; topped with a tsp of PB. (By the way, I learned to make the most delicious bowls of oatmeal ever from Kath’s blog). About an hour later I had a cup of TJ’s Pumpkin Spice Coffee with almond milk and a little bit of agave. I’m still trying to get the consistency right. It tastes a bit watery, but that could be because I’m using an espresso machine instead of a regular coffee maker. Although, I have to say, I’ve made this coffee a few times now, and so far, this is the best cup (I didn’t froth as long and I added more milk).

In other news, I’m probably going to be drinking coffee all day. Last night I saw Paranormal Activity. Dumbest thing I’ve ever done. It was traumatizing. I never fell asleep. I was in and out all night and at some point I think I passed out from exhaustion. So I’m very glad that today is my rest day. I will try to go on a walk later today though.

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About the Crunchy Carrottop

Hi! I'm Caroline. Welcome! I am a 21 year old Communications (Advertising) major in my senior year of college. The Crunchy Carrottop is a healthy living blog dedicated to eating well, working out, and embracing life.